Elderly man acquitted for alleged sex abuse in the 1980s and 90s

A Whitley County Circuit Court Jury has acquitted an 87-year-old Corbin man on charges that he allegedly sexually abused two young female relatives in either the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Following a three-day trial the jury concluded on Oct. 29 that Carl Johnson was not guilty on six counts of first-degree sexual abuse of either of the two female victims. Both were under the age of 12 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.

If convicted, Johnson could have received up to five years in prison on each count.

"I can’t speak for them, but I believe the jury realized that the commonwealth had not proved its case on any of the counts and as a result had to return a verdict of not guilty. That was the right answer in this case," said Johnson’s attorney, Jim Wren II.

The jury deliberated for more than four hours before rendering their verdict.

"It was clear by the questions that they were sending to the bench that they were going over the evidence or lack of evidence in the case," Wren said. "One of the questions indicated they were troubled by the fact that the dates did not link up to the complaining witnesses testimony.

"In another question they sent to the bench they were troubled by change in testimony from what was heard at the grand jury and what was presented at trial."

Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said that the victims in the case were "horribly disappointed" by the verdict.

"We had all of our evidence in. We thought our witnesses did fine but it was the jury’s decision," Trimble said.

"It’s a horrible crime. Any time you have a crime like that it affects a young child, it also affects them as an adult. It is something they are going to have to live with for their whole life."

Trimble said that the two victims were sisters, who came forward together, and that Johnson is related to the two victims.

On July 27, 1985, May 8, 1988 and April 22, 1989, Johnson allegedly had sexual contact with the first victim, who was six, nine and 10 years old at the time of the abuse, according to court documents.

On June 2, 1985, Feb. 27, 1990 and Jan. 19, 1992 Johnson allegedly had sexual contact with the other female victim, who was four, eight and 11 years old at the time, according to court documents.

During the trial, jurors heard from the victims as well as Johnson and several of his relatives.

Johnson’s son, Joe Johnson, and his daughter, Janet Roaden, both testified on his behalf, in addition to Johnson’s former pastor. A female step grandchild and a female grandchild both testified on Johnson’s behalf saying they had never seen or experienced any of the abuse that was claimed by Johnson’s other two female relatives, Wren noted.

The female grandchild, who testified on Johnson’s behalf, grew up during the same time period when the abuse allegedly occurred with the other female relatives, Wren added.

Trimble said that he’s not sure what swayed the jury in rendering its not guilty verdict.

"Clearly they didn’t think we had much of a case," he noted.

Trimble added that in sex abuse cases involving family or intra-family members, you seldom have immediate reporting.

"I’ve been doing this for 27 years and I can count on my hand the cases where you had intra-family situations which are immediately reported," Trimble said. "Young children, they don’t easily report these things. Always when you have late reporting it is used by the defense to question the fact that it ever happened at all. Pretty much all cases are like that."

Just because there is late reporting in a case doesn’t mean prosecutors can’t get a conviction.

This past summer, prosecutors successfully convicted a local man in another late reporting case, but it wasn’t as long between the time of the alleged crime and when it was reported as it was in this case.